D&D 5e Unofficial NPC & Creature Workshop

[zeracool2k]

So one cold April night I looked at my laptop clock, and realized I had spent almost one hour creating my campaign villain. "All that time for only one NPC," I thought. And I hadn't even made drafts of any of her lieutenants, nor the appropriate CR monsters for the encounters.

The "Creating a Monster" section from Chapter 9 of the Dungeon Master's Guide is not at all friendly, and looking for CR threshold values for proficiency, save DC, spells (which are in the Player's Handbook), and such, is a hassle. Even if you take a "similar" creature and start modifying the stat block from there, or use a "standard" creature, it is still tiresome. What if I want a CR 11 Orc Sniper? Or a CR 13 Kobold Lich? Where would I start?

That’s why I made the Unofficial D&D 5e NPC & Creature Workshop. The app lets you create an NPC stat block similar to those featured on the Monster Manual, so you can quickly set up NPCs or monsters from scratch, or use another creature as a base and then modify them from there watching the resulting creature in real-time. Bear in mind that the Workshop is a work in progress, although fully functional. I decided to post the v0.6 build today because my laptop had a stroke and seems to be agonizing, and if it dies I don't know for how long I'll be out of touch.

Please report any bug, typo or mistake that you find! You can also request new functionality, and I'll see what I can do. At the moment I'm on a pretty tight schedule, between work, postgraduate studies, two kids, dying laptop, and my gaming life... so I probably won't post functionality updates quickly, but I will, eventually.

Features:

The app is meant to build and modify NPCs with little effort, and allows you to append them to a par5e npcs.txt file of your choice.
Create and modify NPCs automatically, setting their senses, languages, vulnerabilities, resistances, immunities, spellcasting (with spells), traits, actions, and reactions, and an optional creature description.
View information relevant to the NPC's CR level, with recommendations.
Configure the workshop's source text files to add new information, such as new spells, races (complete with ability bonuses, languages, traits, etc. - actions pending -), damage types, etc.


Observations:

BACKUP YOUR TEXT FILES! From now on, if you make any changes to the Workshop's configuration text files, you have to back them up or you'll lose any modifications. Note that some of the files could have changed, so please check if your format is correct or the app will not work. Please report any bug you find, especially the "blank" interface bug!
Most core rulebook information is not included due to possible copyright issues (only stuff from the basic rules and public things is hard-coded). Most of the Workshop's options can be populated from text files, to avoid any copyright issue that could arise from included “hard-coded” stuff. Check the folders included with the app to see what can be modified.
Please, refer to the ReadMe file included with the app for information on some features that could be confusing.


Workshop's Versions

v0.6: First public test build.
UPDATE 1 (v0.7): Minor bug-fixes. Added read-from-file capabilities, so users can add and/or customize most options; NPC/creature descriptions; export to par5e npcs.txt file.
UPDATE 2 (v0.8): Major overhaul of the interface, to make it easier and faster (resource-wise) to read the configuration files. Added several additional files, including races, armors, and traits and actions. The inclusion of the Races allow to quicly set up a basic NPC of the given race. AC is now calculated based on a configuration file, so you can add any armors you want.

Any previous version can be downloaded from this dropbox link (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l69do2j49patgmz/AADsoEfv2XtMxQbSF4Yf47LXa?dl=0).

Pending Features

Languages

Add "understands XXX" functionality when changing Race.


Backgrounds

Populate backgrounds from text file
Add background skills, languages, etc.


Templates

Add templates (maybe as traits?)
Populate templates from text file


CR

Calculate Defensive CR, Offensive CR, and True CR
Check CR adjustment for AC, Backgrounds, Features, HP, Spellcasting, Vulnerabilities Resistances and Immunities


Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and Immunities

Add a "silvered" option for the weapon damages grid


Spellcasting

Add Innate Spellcasting
Add Innate Spellcasting (Psionics)
Individual spell lists (text files) for each class.


Actions

Make the Ability Bonus change based on the Background
Populate actions from text file (i.e. longsword, slimy, multiattack, etc.)
Limited Usage (x/day, Recharge [x - y][after short rest][after long rest])
Ammunition (2d4 thrown, 2d10 projectile)
Allow reordering of actions


Equipment

Add Equipment (weapons as Actions)


Legendary Actions

Add legendary actions


Lair Actions

Add lair actions


Regional Effects

Add Regional Effects

[Seya]

Amazing thanks

[damned]

Well done zeracool2k!

[jshauber]

Very cool!!! Will play around with this tomorrow and let you know if I have any issues.

[Zacchaeus]

Good work.

[Mixylplyx]

Awesome work! Please keep working on this. My vote for next feature is an export to Par5e.

[jshauber]

Played around with this a bit and it is quite useful.

One bug I noticed is under Spellcasting. If you use the ATTACK BONUS drop down box to add any positive number, the stat block shows a -99x as bonus to hit with spell attacks.

I'll continue to play around and report anything any other bugs I find.

[zeracool2k]

Thanks for the support!

jshauber, I'll look into the bug tomorrow, and post an update as soon as I can. Thank for testing the app!

[No1Sciguy]

This is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing.

[zeracool2k]

Phew! The second update for the workshop.

Had to overhaul the interface to use more dataGrids, which make reading the configuration files way more easy and faster (and take up less space). The app is taking shape now.

Note that when creating a creature, the first thing you should settle is the race, because when you change the race indicator, most of the other choices could be lost (languages, senses, and the like), because races will overwrite them. But it should be easier to create quick "mold" NPCs, which was my main goal, because races dictate most of the creature's features automatically; however, you'll need to work on the races.txt file to fully take advantage of these features.

Next I will address Templates, Innate Spellcasting and Psionics, and reading Actions from a text file.

[Maasq]

Hey there, I was playing about with version 0.9 of this tonight, and it looks to have a lot of promise. A couple of things felt as if they weren't working right, but I suspected it was more that I didn't understand what to do properly. An example being I couldn't get the creature's description to add to the text file.

Is this still being developed, Zeracool2k?

[zeracool2k]

Hello, nice to see someone is actually using the app!

Sadly, I put development on hold (read: complete stop) due to several factors. Mainly because our group disintegrated due to "growing up", but also because I received no feedback on the app, and of course, because real life. Last I remember the description was disabled, but I'm not sure whether this is true or not. Otherwise, the app should be functional, and you can even edit the text files to add your own stuff.

Still, give me some feedback, if you have any.

[JohnD]

That's terrible. Growing up is to be avoided at all costs.

[No1Sciguy]

That's terrible. Growing up is to be avoided at all costs.

Yeah, I've heard of this happening so some people. Sounds awful. I really hope someday they find a cure.

[Maasq]

Hey Zeracool. Sorry to hear things stopped working for you!

Some parts of the program I liked, and some parts I found difficult - I felt there would be an easier way to do them.

Things I liked:
1. The templates look useful for inputting a whole series of demons, or kobolds, or the like. In general, I could see the benefits of the external text files but I wouldn't necessarily use them all myself.

2. I like the tick boxes for saving throws, senses, skills, languages, condition immunity, damage vulnerability etc. Some people will be happier with cutting and pasting, but I like the accuracy.

3. I like the idea of the dropdown boxes for speeds, but I feel empty boxes to type in '30' and tab on would be faster and less annoying. The unit could already be in place for this change.

4. Similarly, the spellcasting looks helpful. The output isn't correct for Par5e though - the syntax is off.

I think this is a useful way to input creatures, but as it isn't complete it is hard to judge. I liked the idea, and I can see it improving to be very useful.

Things I didn't like:
1. The drop-down menus in the sub-boxes - movement etc - always need multiple clicks. Always 2, sometimes more, just to get it to drop down. I assume that this is a programming language issue and could be fixed.

2. Fields that need numbers would be far faster and easier to fill just by typing the number - ability scores, speed, distance for senses and so on. By all means have a default value, but have it select and replace when you tab and start typing.

3. Many drop downs seemed limited to the templates. This is understandable, but if I want to add a new armor type, it should allow this and automatically append it to the text file.

4. Actions was very confusing. I couldn't work out how to just add an attack that wasn't in the dropdowns - again, this is probably something I can edit in the text files, but I should be able to type without editing a separate text file.

5. I couldn't find a way to remove an action that I didn't want - and because I couldn't get the actions I wanted I had a lot of reason to remove them again!

6. The box that details the action (top right) doesn't seem to update unless you change a related ability via the little dropdown. Again, I may be missing something obvious.

7. I feel traits, legendary actions and reactions belong in their own section, not hidden in a dropdown.

Further suggestion (first of many I'd suspect, if you started working on it again!)
A simple way to add an image link and headings at the top of the description (checkbox)

#h;CREATURENAME
#zl;image;CREATURE.jpg;Image: CREATURE
(where the names fill automatically from the name set for the NPC, with spaces removed for the filename)

I hope this reads as supportive, and not criticising. I think it is a great idea for an NPC prepper, and a worthy addition to aids to par5ing :)

Maasq

[zeracool2k]

Thanks for the feedback! This actually encourages me to get back to the project, which I'll probably do once my workload is diminished (probably around Q3 2017).

Comments on your comments:

For things you liked:

1. The idea for the text files was to have an initial "easy-ish-to-use" way for people to add their stuff; the idea was to add CRUD tabs so that the adding/editing could be done from within the app, and then pack the data within a single, encrypted file.

2. I did this mainly to avoid having "undetectable" errors that come from typing/copying (such as 1O instead of 10, and ldl0 instead of 1d10).

3 and 4. I am adding these to my TODO list.

For things you didn't like:

1. I noticed this early on, and I am 95% sure it is due to the small size of the combos, but I always pushed the fixing back to the day I "fix the interface".

2. Noted.

3. This should be allowed by the CRUD tabs.

4, 5, and 6. This is where I left off, and it's been so long I'm not sure what is what anymore. I do remember that Actions are broken, so expect errors.

7. Noted.

As soon as I have a viable version, I'll publish it here, and let you know (most likely in July, but who knows).

Thanks!

[Maasq]

I'm glad to be some sort of inspiration :)

There's another program that might be worth looking at as you go along - D&D Monster Maker (https://thegeniusinc.com/dd-monster-maker-download/?ref=2.3.3). It is designed to produce statblocks, but I think many of the options on that are well laid out. I also happen to think a single program that could output a statblock and a par5e text file would be a fine thing, and I wish I was a programmer :)

I look forward with interest to July then!